Non-roll foundation garment



March 26, 1968 YOUNG ETAL 3,374,793

NON-ROLL FOUNDATION GARMENT Original Filed Nov. 13, 1962 INVENTORS JamesE Young& BY John D. Ferguson www- ATTORNEY United States Patent3,374,793 NON-ROLL FOUNDATION GARMENT James F. Young, Dover, and John D.Ferguson, Alapocas, Wilmington, Del., assignors to Sarong, Inc., Dover,Del., a corporation of Delaware Continuation of application Ser. No.236,926, Nov. 13, 1962. This application Feb. 18, 1966, Ser. No. 528,5056 Claims. (Cl. 128-533) This application is a continuation ofapplication Ser. No. 236,926, filed Nov. 13, 1962, now abandoned.

This invention is an improved foundation garment which has no bones orstays in the upper edge but is nevertheless highly resistant to curlingat the waist line.

Girdles which have collars of about two inches or more in width areprone to unsightly curling of the collar either in an outward directionknown as rolling or in an inward direction known as buckling. Both areuncomfortable to the wearer. To overcome this fault it has been thepractice to use stiffening means such as bones or stays in the collar,but these cause localized pressures and tend to work through the fabricand jab the flesh of the wearer. This undesirable quality of workingthrough the fabric is hastened by machine washing, and the advent ofSpandex fabrics for girdles, widely advertised as being machinewashable, has only emphasized the problem.

We have unexpectedly found that we can eliminate bones and stays and yetsubstantially prevent rolling of the collar of a girdle. According toour invention a foundation garment of the girdle type is provided with acircumferentially elastic woven collar whose vertically disposed threadshave a fineness in the range of 200 to 700 denier, or equivalentfineness, and whose upper edge is bifurcated or divided into twoseparate lips, each of which may be integrally interwoven with the bodyof the collar.

On living models who generally experience curling of their girdles, wehave observed that curling is much less evident with our construction.In those isolated instances where rolling did occur, we have furtherobserved that only the outer top lip rolled while the inner top lipcontinued to hug the body. A most surprising and unexpected feature wasthat the outer lip generally came back into position automatically sothat the rolling lasted for only a very short time. This characteristicof automatic recovery from rolling is a-bonus feature that could nothave been predicted. We theorize that the outward pressure of the fleshat the collar region is transmitted by the inner lip down through itsbase line which acts somewhat as a fulcrum and causes the outer lip tomove inwardly toward the body. Regardless of theory, however, it is afact that rolling is greatly reduced with the girdle collar of ourinvention and whatever slight rolling that might occur is automaticallycorrected.

Advantageously, we have further found that the provision of a secondpair of lips at the bottom edge of the collar substantially eliminatesbuckling. The bottom pair of lips may be also integrally interwoven withthe body of the collar, and the vertically disposed threads have thesame range of fineness as mentioned above.

Girdles fitted with our collar are remarkably resistant to both rollingand buckling. It is to be noted that when the top of the girdle properis sewn between the two bottom lips of the collar, there is a graduatedthickness which is greatest at the bottom. Three or more thicknesses ofmaterial are present where the two bottom lips enfold the top edge ofthe girdle proper, two thicknesses of material are present in the bodyof the collar and separate single thicknesses are present at the top. Itmay be that the graduated thickness and the corresponding stiffness orheaviness influence the bending and stretching charac- 3,374,793Patented Mar. 26, 1968 teristics of the collar, but it is a fact thatboth rolling and buckling are substantially eliminated.

Proceeding now to a more detailed description of the invention referencewill be had to the accompanying drawings which are to be understood asbeing illustrative and not limitative of the invention.

FIGURE 1 is a front elevational view of our improved garment.

FIGURE 2 is a rear elevational view of the garment shown in FIG. 1.

FIGURE 3 is a cross-sectional view of the garment taken along the line33 of FIG. 1.

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the collar of ourgirdle.

In these drawings we have shown a preferred form of girdle comprising aplurality of panels adapted to encircle the lower torso, including afront panel 10 and a rear panel 11 secured to side panels 12 and 13.These panels are made of fabric which are joined together along theirvertical edges as shown at 14 and 15. Front panel 10 comprises twosubstantially overlapping panels 16 and 17 which have lower edges 18 and19 of elastic bands 25 and 26 respectively, disposed in criss-crossrelationship by means of the upwardly extending disposition of each ofthe edges from their points of attachment 20 and 21 to their points ofattachment 22 and 23 respectively, on the opposing side panels 12 and13. The lower edges 18 and 19 are disposed obliquely and cross generallyat the vertical median line of the panels 16 and 17. These panels arealso attache-d to the waist or girdle collar 24; as shown, they mayconstitute a part of the waist line as an inset. The bottom edge of theside panels 12 and 13 and of the back panel 11 are provided with anelastic band 27. Garter strap holders 28, 29, 30 and 31 are provided asshown at spaced points along the bottom edge of the garment.

The side panels 12 and 13 and elastic bands 25 and 26 are of two-waystretch material as indicated by the stretch arrows, while back panel 11and elastic band 27 are of one-way stretch material.

The girdle collar 24 is provided at the top with a pair of lips 32 and33 which are separate and free from each other; as shown in FIG. 4,however, they are each integrally interwoven with the central body ofthe collar. Lower lips 34 and 35 are similarly provided. While FIG. 4shows one embodiment, another which works well is that wherein the lips33 and 34 are part of a first layer of fabric 38 while lips 32 and 35are part of the second layer of fabric 36. This construction in effectprovides a cross-over of the two layers of fabric 36 and 38 just abovethe bottom pair of lips. The collar is made of horizontally extendingrubber yarn or thread such as those shown at 37 so that it will have ahigh degree of longitudinal or horizontal elasticity. It may be made byprocedures well known in the weaving art, such as in a double shuttlenarrow wear loom. The two shuttles lay in the filling threads While theharnesses form suitable sheds for producing the two layers. At the sametime the binder warps are manipulated to produce an integralinterweaving of the two layers. In the embodiment shown in FIG- URES 3and 4 the lips at the top and bottom are shown to be of equal width. Itis to be understood however that one lip either the top or bottom pair,or of both pairs, may be made slightly narrower than its companion.

The phrase in the range of 200 to 700 denier or equivalent finenessmeans threads having a fineness in the range of 200 to 700 denier orequivalent fineness when measured by other numbering systems, as forexample the cotton or wool yarn numbering systems. All fibers fallingwithin this range of fineness may be used, including natural fibers suchas cotton and wool, etc., and synthetic fibers such as rayon, nylon andDacron, etc.

It is essential that the vertically extending threads of the collar havea finenessof at least 200 denier. Threads having a denier below thisvalue, as 150 denier, do not result in a non-curling collar. A denierrange of 400 to 600 produces collars which are very resistant tocurling, while deniers above 700 yield a fabric which is too bulky andhard to manipulate.

As previously indicated, collars in the neighborhood of two inches ormore in width are especially prone to curling. We have found that incollars having an overall width of about 2" the lips should be fromabout to /8" in width. Good non-curling characteristics are obtainedwhen the lips are /2" wide. It is an interesting fact of this inventionthat while the upper lips prevent non-rolling, the bottom lips preventbuckling.

Our invention is by no means limited to the particular girdle shown inthe drawings but is equally applicable to all types of girdles, whetherregular or panty, or whether made of cloth, a combination of cloth andrubber, or all rubber, e.g., deposited latex girdles.

It is to be understood that the present invention also is not limited tothe specific details of embodiments described and illustrated in thedrawings, but various changes and adaptations may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention as hereindescribed and defined. For example the panels may be in elastic as wellas elastic throughout the entire garment except for a reqiured minimumof one panel which must be stretchable. In addition, the panels may bepart elastic and part in elastic as in well known gore or insertconstructions. The body-encircling panels may consist of side, rear andfront panels, or the side and rear panels may be merged into one.

We claim:

1. A girdle construction including a woven circumferentially elasticcollar joined at its bottom edge to the top edge of the girdle proper,the collar being made of one-way stretch fabric having a high degree oflongitudinal elasticity and containing vertically disposed threadshaving a fineness in the range of 200 to 700 deniers or equivalentfineness, said collar comprising a body portion and a lip portion, saidbody portion having at least two interwoven fabric layers, the upperedge of the collar being divided into two free separate overlapping lipseach being integrally interwoven with the collar body and being integralextensions of its fabric layers, the body of the collar being wider andstiffer than the lips whereby tensions generated by movement of the bodyof the wearer are distributed through the collar to cause the lipportion to turn in towards the body of the wearer and thus substantiallyreduce rolling of the top of the collar.

2. A girdle according to claim 1 wherein the bottom edge of the collaris also divided into two integrally woven lips with the top edge of thegirdle proper secured therebetween.

3. A girdle according to claim 1 wherein the overall width of the collaris about two inches.

4. A girdle according to claim 1 wherein the upper and lower lips are soconstructed that one upper lip and its opposite bottom lip are part of afirst layer of fabric of the collar and the other upper lip and itsopposite bottom lip are part of a second layer of fabric of the collar.1

5. A girdle including a girthwise stretchable collar attached to andextending from the top edge of the girdle proper, said collar having abody portion that is attached to the top edge of the girdle proper andextends upwardly into a bifurcated overlapped lip portion having freeupper edges, said body portion being wider and stiffer than said upperlip portion, whereby a soft top edge is provided by the bifurcated lipportion which cooperates with the stifi body portion to resist turningout and over of the collar.

6. A girdle according to claim 5 wherein the bottom edge of the collaris also divided into two lips with the top edge of the girdle propersecured therebetween.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,207,132 7/ 1940 Rosenbergl39384 2,245,095 6/ 1941 Nordseth 139-384 2,246,672 6/1941 Gibbons139-384 2,279,206 4/ 1942 Randall 139-3 84 3,043,312 7/ 1962 Dorsey128521 FOREIGN PATENTS 18,969 9/ 1899 Great Britain.

ADELE M. EAGER, Primary Examiner.

1. A GIRDLE CONSTRUCTION INCLUDING A WOVEN CIRCUMFERENTIALLY ELASTICCOLLAR JOINED AT ITS BOTTOM EDGE TO THE TOP EDGE OF THE GIRDLE PROPER,THE COLLAR BEING MADE OF ONE-WAY STRETCH FABRIC HAVING A HIGH DEGREE OFLONGITUDINAL ELASTICITY AND CONTAINING VERTICALLY DISPOSED THREADSHAVING A FINENESS IN THE RANGE OF 200 TO 700 DENIERS OR EQUIVALENTFINENESS, SAID COLLAR COMPRISING A BODY PORTION AND A LIP PORTION, SAIDBODY PORTION HAVING AT LEAST TWO INTERWOVEN FABRIC LAYERS, THE UPPEREDGE OF THE COLLAR BEING DIVIDED INTO TWO FREE SEPARATE OVERLAPPING LIPSEACH BEING INTEGRALLY INTERWOVEN WITH THE COLLAR BODY AND BEING INTEGRALEXTENSIONS OF ITS FABRIC LAYERS, THE BODY OF THE COLLAR BEING WIDER ANDSTIFFER THAN THE LIPS WHEREBY TENSIONS GENERATED BY MOVEMENT OF THE BODYOF THE WEARER ARE DISTRIBUTED THROUGH THE COLLAR TO CAUSE THE LIPPORTION TO TURN IN TOWARDS THE BODY OF THE WEARER AND THUS SUBSTANTIALLYREDUCE ROLLING OF THE TOP OF THE COLLAR.